What is Their Mission?

The article I chose discusses just what exactly is the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America) goal is with their rating system. Starting off this article is an occurrence involving Harvey Weinstein (a movie producer) and how he had director Quentin Tarantino pitch the movie to the board. Weinstein made this decision because he feels the board doesn’t like him, but they like Tarantino. The MPAA has been criticized for many years for the way they rate films. I can agree with some of these criticisms. One main one is that of sex being rated harsher than violence in films. This just doesn’t make sense to me. Of course in the article Joan Graves (chief of rating board) defends this claim by saying that graphic violence films are rated harshly and that type of violence is quite common. Where is the line drawn? Look at the Saw movies, people are getting mutilated on the screen, and the audience sees everything, still these films are rated R. Being worried about kids is what the board says their concerns is, but if kids have someone to buy them tickets to those types of movies, why even rate them at all? Another problem I have with the rating board, that’s mentioned in this article is the fact that the board members are kept secret from the public. Why are they kept a secret? Graves says it’s to protect them from angry filmmakers and audiences. Kirby Dick makes a great point in the article mentioning that many officials in the government and school systems are known why are these people so special? This article really made me think just what exactly is the purpose of the rating board.

Violence, Sex, and the MPAA

Over spring break, I watched this interesting documentary titled This Film Not Yet Rated. What caught my eye was the fact that I want to go in to the filmmaking business and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is an important part of the filmmaking process. These people pretty much decide the fate of a film. Getting an NC-17 rating is almost like a death sentence to a film. What I learned from the documentary was that the board of people who rate movies is kept secret from the public. This personally doesn’t make sense to me. Another aspect that bothers me is that sex in films is given a “worse” rating then violence. Why is this? Graphic violence can be very harmful to children who see it in a film. Take the Saw movies for example, these films receive an R rating, but the violence and the gore in these films are horrific and definitely terrifying to a young child. I’ve read that the movie Blue Valentine (starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling) was given an NC-17 rating because of the sexual content included in the films. Why is it that movies with sex get the death sentence rating, while those films with intense violence only get an R? Another area that interested me was the fact that moviegoers don’t know just who these people on the rating board are. What experiences to they have that will make them beneficial to the film rating process? This documentary has led me to want to find out more about these questions.

Making it "Big Time"

Everyone has a band that is their favorite. I know I do; my favorite band is Paramore. For my eighteenth birthday my dad bought me tickets to go see them in concert. Lucky for me my dad was kind enough to drive my best friend and me to Chicago to see Paramore at The House of Blues. This made for a great birthday weekend, but it made me think, why do bands play small venues until they get known? To me it would’ve been much easier to see them in Peoria at the Civic Center, but I traveled the 3 hours to Chicago. As anyone knows or could find out, most bands when they’re independent or just getting started will play small venues. Playing these smaller places allows them to get closer to their fans. But when they make it “big time” they’ll only stick to the larger places to play. Personally if I was in a band, I would play the big venues, but also play my music at smaller ones too, in order to get that feeling of being close to and relating to my fans. Don’t get me wrong, the concert at The House of Blues was amazing, and it wasn’t that huge a place, but the fact I had to travel to a big city to see Paramore made me think of this topic. Could there be a way to convince bands to play smaller venues from time to time? Only time will tell if this is possible.